On the Horizon: It’s all right, Be different. Wildlife Control.

Self-coined “bicoastal brothers” Neil and Sumul Shah masquerade as Wildlife Control – a name they scraped off the back of ‘a ’68 Cadillac ambulance art car sometimes seen patrolling the streets of Brooklyn’ (?!) although the grandiose synth-pop stylisation of their latest, Different, is by no means a derivative endeavour. Propelled by turbulent drum patterns and hoisted aloft by aloof vocals articulating lyrics along the lines of “It’s all right, be different” it’s all immediately evocative of the melancholy, blizzard-like magnificence of those greatest of Danes, Mew. The duo similarly bring in the visceral distortions of The Thermals to add crunch to the mellifluous cunning already contained within, though in intermingling the disparate influences to create a cohesive, and with that compellingly accomplished whole the brothers in guitars indeed corroborate their avid conviction of it being quite alright to go against the grains of convention.